Interim Grace Notes for January 26, 2024

Interim Grace Notes for January 26, 2024

Maureen Completes Basic Unit of Clinical Pastoral Education

Ministry, like most professions, has both generalists and specialists. Physicians can be General Practitioners, and any number of medical specialists. Lawyers have a wide range of specialty options to choose from. My son Erik is a Civil Engineer, and is a geotechnical specialist - he analyzes subsoil to determine if the earth's substrate will support whatever physical structure might install on any given area of land.

Ministry also has specialists - most pastors are generalists, but many choose a specialty: Youth ministry, Outdoor Ministry (Marcy was a Lutheran Camp director before becoming a 5th grade teacher), or institutional chaplaincy. Some who become chaplains also become CPE Supervisors. CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) is education to teach spiritual care to clergy and others, and is the primary method of training hospital and hospice chaplains and spiritual care providers to develop counseling skills, familiarity with a particular pastoral setting (usually within a hospital, parish, hospice, retirement home, etc.) and self-awareness as pastoral care-givers.

A basic (usually a three-month course) unit of CPE has long been a staple of seminary education, required of all who are enrolled in seminary with a path to ordination as Ministers of Word and Sacrament (ordained pastors) and Ministers of Word and Service (ordained deacons).

Recently, more and more denominations are expecting lay ministry staff who are serving congregations, in our case, Synodically Authorized Ministers (SAM's), to complete a basic unit of CPE. This is now the expectation of the SAM's in our Northwestern Ohio Synod. Maureen enrolled in and completed a basic unit, taking six hours every Wednesday to attend Zoom classes taught by a CPE supervisor, and participating in one-on-one meetings with the supervisor to discuss progress and evaluate written assignments.

I completed four units (one year) of CPE before I started in parish ministry 42 years ago, but I remember well how challenging this part of my education to be a pastor was. I am happy to report that Maureen has completed her basic unit of CPE. She shared her evaluation with me, which I would describe as nothing less than exemplary.

Congratulations, Maureen on this accomplishment, and thanks for your continued pursuit of excellence in ministry at Grace!

Saturday Worship Accompanists Visiting This Weekend

I reported in last week's Grace Notes that I had interviewed a candidate to be our Saturday worship accompanist. I was impressed with her skills, and after meeting informally with Executive Committee, we decided to offer her the position. A contract will be developed and voted on at the next Executive Committee meeting on February 12. The candidate's name is Hyo Jung Kim, and she is an immigrant from Korea. Her husband, Jin, is the pastor of the Korean Presbyterian Church USA congregation in Toledo, and she is the accompanist at her husbands church, which explains why she is not a candidate for the Sunday position at Grace. She will be attending worship at Grace this Saturday so that she can get a feel for the service. If you have time on Saturday, stop by and help welcome Hyo to Grace. Her first Saturday to play will be February 17.

Property Committee Researching Organ MIDI Possibilities

Greg from Property Committee has been doing some excellent research and outreach to see if the Grace organ can connect via MIDI to play SOS (Substitute Organist Service) organ tracks. We have been trying to coordinate communication between Glenn Tallar, our organ technician/tuner and Lynae from SOS to determine if this will work. Greg did some investigating on the organ and found some MIDI elements which he photographed. Then... Breaking News!!
Just received an email from Lynae from SOS, who had reviewed the photos sent by Greg. Here is what she said:

Hi Greg,

It looks like the organ is all set up for MIDI playback already! That is a Classic Organ Works system, and we have successfully added those to our organ “library” in the past. If y’all are in favor, we can move ahead with mapping the organ’s MIDI commands to be able to use the SOS with the organ instead of the sound system. That process takes 2-3 weeks to complete and will cost you $100 for the map, and about $100 for the connection equipment between the iPad and organ.

Let me know if you’d like to proceed and we’ll get the ball rolling!

Blessings, Lynea

I replied to Lynea to say yes, proceed with this upgrade, and to copy Greg, Glenn (our organ tuner/tech) and me in future correspondence.

Pack 302 Pinewood Derby Scheduled

The Cub Scout Pinewood Derby has fostered creativity, innovation, and friendly rivalry among Cub Scouts and their parents for 70 years. First introduced in 1953 by Don Murphy, a Cubmaster in California, the original rules required each car be made from a single wood block. The Pinewood Derby has become a favorite activity for Cub Scouts across America, with millions of participants each year creating cars and racing them down a ramped track.

The Pack 302 Pinewood Derby is scheduled for Saturday, January 27, beginning at 4:15 pm. This will be our first ever Glow in the Dark Derby Race!

Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Workshop

On Thursday, I along with two other Grace members joined the first of four monthly sessions. that will help us build a strong program of volunteer recruitment and retention. We learned about how to write good job descriptions for our volunteers. These job descriptions contain five essential elements:

• Tasks - A list of the tasks that this position entails
• Impact - A description of the impact a members volunteer service will have on others
• Timeframe - You are volunteering for a specific time-from, not forever and ever
• Check-ins - Someone will check-in to see how things are going.
• Testimonials - Those who have done this task in the past tell stories of how doing this volunteer task has enriched their spiritual lives and the lives of others.

The session has been recorded, and I'd encourage you to watch it HERE. The Passcode is: @W9$jd4V It lasts about an hour. You can view a sample job description with the above mention elements HERE.

Healthy Congregations Facilitator Training

On Thursday I also attended via Zoom the second of seven training sessions for becoming a Healthy Congregations Workshop Facilitator. Last week was an introduction, and this week's session introduced the first of the six Workshops. You can read more about these six workshops that I am being trained to lead HERE. Grace could benefit from attending any or all of these workshops, facilitated by a member of the NWOS Congregational Resource Team. Each workshop has several sessions that are designed to be carried out over a six-hour period - usually a Saturday from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.

Links for You

• February Grace and Truth
• LIFT Notes
• Just Three Things
• Hopewood Outdoors Fireside News
• An Excellent Message from Dr. Emlyn Ott, Executive Director of Healthy Congregations

From the Healthy Congregations Executive Director

 From the Executive Director...

 

 

How would you describe a color to someone who had been blind since birth?

Explaining the unimaginable to the puzzled or someone who has no experience of what you are describing is really what must have been Jesus’ life for those years of his public ministry. It was frustrating, exciting, illuminating, and confusing to those who heard him. And made many angry. Very angry.

In Jesus’ time, most people thought the end of the world would be in their lifetime. There were many who roamed the world, proclaiming the end times or promising that they were the ones to save the world.

To get his message across Jesus clothed the utterly unique work of God through Christ in language that was how the people of his time lived and spoke.

Jesus’ preaching and teaching was all about “the kingdom of God.” The first-century world understood the concept of “kingship” very well. They expected that their salvation would be a political one—a geographic king of power and might.  The nations of the world were ruled by kings, and kings were absolute authority figures with unquestioned control over their subjects. The Old Testament refers to the kingship of God more than any other divine quality. Israel was God’s first kingdom, but in the future all the nations would recognize God’s ruling status and bow down before God.

When Jesus spoke of the “kingdom of God’ his audience, especially the Torah-learned Jews, thought they knew what he was talking about.

Surprise. They did not.

Jesus was not talking about establishing a place with borders, a kind of divine fiefdom. The kingdom of God wasn’t a political polis or a pie-in-the-sky, far-and-away dreamscape.

In fact, the kingdom of God didn’t even depend upon a stern, large-and-in-charge “king” for its existence. Even though Jesus spent most of his days describing the kingdom of God, he had little to say about God as “king.” Instead, Jesus spoke of a God as “Abba,” a God who loved, who longed for their children, who offered redemption and forgiveness. A closer but not exact translation would be “Papa” or “Daddy.” That is who Jesus prayed to.

Jesus’ “kingdom of God” was something entirely different from any kingdom people had ever seen or heard or experienced before. How do you describe that in a way that people could wrap their heads around it?

You and I are still confused about it.

Jesus never defined the kingdom. Jesus never gave a clear and concise definition of what he meant by "the kingdom of God." But Jesus did describe through stories and healings and teachings what might be the capacities that would challenge each one of them to live into a relationship with God. A faith built on principles of hope and new life might lead people to:

• Make choices that are thoughtful about when to cross the line and when to stay in line.
• Continue to challenge themselves to look to their principles and faith for a new view on their life and challenges.
• Focus on their experience and living as a process of learning.
• Look to the stories of the people who lived before them as resources of understanding and perspective.

There is an “ing” quality to this capacity that Jesus offers. Movement.  Experimentation. There was a “reJesus” movement in the 2000’s that encouraged people in Christian faith communities to become a “conspiracy of little Jesuses.”  It raised important perspectives on holding one’s feet to the fire of belief. Do people who observe us see that there is a connection between what we say and how we act? The issue is not catching or judging other people in their hypocrisy but catching and healing our own.

Jesus’ first act in public ministry was to start calling a community of disciples to “follow me.” Jesus’ invitation was “Join me. Be in relationship to me and what we stand for. And later Jesus promised his disciples that wherever “Two or three are gathered in my name, there I am also.”

When Jesus called his first disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, he didn’t call them to a life of thoughtful contemplation, days of mystic musing, or holy habitations. Jesus called them into live action, everyday mission. They had been making their living by catching fish. Now they would make a new life by catching people, by sharing a message and perspective that is more caught than taught.

Our family lived in Europe in 2003 for 6 months. We got to travel throughout Great Britain and then made trips to France and Germany. On one of our trips, we spent time in a garden of the sculptor Auguste Rodin’s statues in Paris. 

While we were there, we heard a story about Rodin. One day Rodin noticed a large crucifix that had been discarded in a pile of trash. Although it was in terrible shape, Rodin thought that it could be restored to its original beauty. He and others carried it to his home.

But the cross was too big for his house. What to do? Rather than return it to the trash heap, Rodin decided to knock out some walls and raise the roof of his house to make room for it.

In what ways does our observation about our everyday world and our clarity about what we believe challenge us to knock out some walls and raise the roof of our lives or our faith communities? In what ways are we taking the challenges that were offered in the first century and making them relevant and engaged in the 21^st? How do we think systems and watch process? Where do we need to cross the line, experiment, clarify, take action or learn from the experiences of those in previous generations?

Blessings,

Interim Grace Notes for January 19, 2024

Heather in NOLA for Extravaganza

Heather departed early on Thursday morning for New Orleans to attend Extravaganza 2024, the annual gathering of The ELCA Network, a consortium of children, youth and family ministry volunteers and professionals. The Extravaganza website describes this event well:

Extravaganza is the Network's annual conference, drawing together over 1,000 leaders in children, youth and family ministry, along with teachers, resource providers and leaders from the ELCA, all for four days of renewal, education and networking.

This year's theme is "Dream," and theme verse is Acts 2:17 -- “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your shall prophesy, and your young…shall see visions,and your old…shall dream dreams.”

We wish Heather and all our fellow ELCA participants an inspiring time together, and a safe return home for all. Heather flies back to Ohio on Monday, January 22.

First Communion Mini-Retreat Scheduled

Heather and I have scheduled the next mini-retreat for our 2nd graders and others who may join for this learning. The date and time is Saturday, March 16, from 9:00 - 11:00 am. Heather indicated that our group will be a bit smaller this year - we're expecting at least two, possibly three, hopefully even more.

Spirit Canceled on Wednesday

The Grace Inclement Weather Policy kicked in on Wednesday - with Fremont Schools being closed, we also canceled Spirit - the supper and all scheduled groups.

Saturday Organist Interviewed

On Tuesday, I interviewed a candidate for the Saturday organist position at Grace. She is the spouse of a Toledo area pastor, and plays organ at her husband's church on Sundays, so is not available then. She has a long impressive resume of accompanist on piano and organ for both congregational worship as well as for choirs and praise teams. I was impressed with her abilities - she first played the organ, then the piano. It wasn't until she got to the piano that I thought to record a few measures of her playing. You can hear about 30 seconds of her playing the Josh Groban favorite "You Raise Me Up" HERE. I am working with with the Executive Committee on the processing of this prospective hire.

Healthy Congregations Workshop Facilitator Training

On Thursday I participated in the first of seven sessions of training to become a Facilitator for Healthy Congregations Workshops. "What is that?" you may ask. Let me begin with an explanation of what Healthy Congregations is. Here is a description from the Healthy Congregations website:

Healthy Congregations is an ecumenical and interfaith organization that takes seriously the times that we live in and the challenges of thinking more clearly about families, congregations, and leadership. Healthy Congregations, Inc. offers resources and training that are based on a view of life that looks at communities as living systems that incorporate thinking, feeling, responsibility, and purpose.

Making use of the contributions of leaders in the field of Bowen Family Systems Theory and congregational life, Healthy Congregations, Inc. has created educational resources and leadership development material designed with the purpose of encouraging healthier, clearer and deeper individual and community life.

Over the years, Healthy Congregations has developed a series of six workshops that help promote the health and well-being of congregations. The first workshop introduces the basics of systems thinking; the second addresses healthy ways of addressing anxiety, change and conflict. Other workshops address growing strong leaders, healthy relationships, developing generosity in stewardship and strong spirituality. You can read more about these six workshops HERE.

The training that I began this week will teach me how to lead these six workshops as part of our Northwestern Ohio Synod Congregational Resources Team which I joined last year. There is much here that could benefit our synod congregations, including Grace. The team already has experienced facilitators that could help with any or all of the areas addressed by these workshops.

The cost for this training is $800, of which the synod is paying half. Participation on this team will be one way that I can continue to serve the synod and its congregations in retirement.

Round-Robin Planned for Lent Midweek

LIFT Leaders met last week, and one of the items on our meeting agenda was a plan for midweek Lent services. We settled on a plan for a "Round-Robin" approach in which a group of pastors prepares a message on the chosen theme, and then takes it on the "road" to each of the congregations represented by the leaders. An ideal situation is 5 leaders going to 5 different churches each week. Since we have four leaders and three locations, the schedule looks like THIS. You'll see that our theme is "Making Change" and our topics are:

• Change of Season
• Change of Circumstances
• Change of Heart
• Change of Plans
• Change of Habit

Since there are four of us and five weeks of midweek services (not counting Ash Wednesday), we'll each be at our own church for the first week, then we'll cycle through the other locations during the following weeks. Many thanks to Paul who figured it all out and put it all together!

Links for You

• LIFT Notes
• Just Three Things
• ELCA Seeds Monthly

Interim Grace Notes for January 12, 2024

Interim Grace Notes for January 12, 2024

Council Adopts "Covenant of Conduct"

One of the items of business at Monday's Council meeting was the adoption of a "Covenant of Conduct." This covenant is an agreement between members and council members on processing opinions, facts, and complaints. It is a recommended resource for congregations, and is posted on the Northwestern Ohio Synod website. You can view and read the Covenant HERE.

The covenant encourages congregation members to share their thoughts and complaints, but in order for the Council to acknowledge those comments and complaints seriously and possibly take action, they have to be owned by the person making them.

It is not uncommon for council and other leaders to receive "Anonymous" written complaints. Such anonymous complaints, quoting text from the covenant,

create undercurrents that threaten to divide the gathered congregation and disturb its health. Further, anonymous comments can become breeding grounds for gossip and speculation that leads to further division. Conversely, bringing requests, concerns and information to the leadership in a spirit of openness builds trust and creates an atmosphere of accountability and faithfulness.

The upshot of faithfully following this covenant is that anonymous communications will not be heard, read or considered by Council. Council members present at Monday's meeting received a hard-copy of the covenant, and we are considering ways to share it with the congregation.

Funeral for Grace Member and Fremont Manufacturing Pioneer

On Thursday I conducted the funeral for long-time Grace member and patriarch, CEO-emeritus, and former owner of Crown Battery, Lee Koenig. I met Lee briefly after worship at Grace, and visited in the hospital in the fall before he and Caryl returned to their home in Florida. The story of Crown Battery is an amazing and inspirational one of hard work, grit, and determination, growing from a few family employees to an operation with over 200 employees when he retired and sold the company in 1998, with Grace member Hal Hawk assuming majority ownership and CEO. Under Hal's leadership, the company has grown to over 600 employees, with distribution centers in several states and Canada. Lee's death was announced on the website of one of the trade organizations that he and the company belonged to, along with a brief history of Crown. You can read it HERE.

Following the service at Wonderly, there was a luncheon at the Live Edge Center on Front Street. Hal invited me to join him, Diane, and their daughter Megan (Maureen's September wedding at St. John Port Clinton) at their table. Also at the table were former Fremont Ross swim coaches Ron Zwerlein and Art Bucci. With my Erik and Sarah swimmers for Norwalk, it provided for some interesting conversation. I learned through some web searches that the Hawk-Bucci Natatorium at Fremont Ross is named for Hal and Art who provided direction and inspiration for the fundraising.

I returned on Friday morning for the committal and military honors which were held at Wonderly instead of the cemetery. One bit of information about Lee's faith beginnings -- he was baptized and confirmed not at Grace but at St. Mark. Not sure when he made the move to Grace.

Attended First GSB Track for Pastors on Thursday

I've been promoting your participation in a series of Zoom meetings on Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers sponsored by GSB Fundraising, our Stewardship consulting firm. I'm still promoting it -- there is one session per month for four months. You can find more info and how to sign up HERE.

GSB offers a special track for pastors entitled "Stewardship: The Effective Pastoral Leader" - also four sessions. I joined the first session via Zoom today. The theme of the sessions are:

• January 11 – Looking in the mirror: your personal relationship with money
• February 8 – Generosity: Leading cultural change in the congregation
• March 14 – The Pastoral Leader’s role in raising funds for ministry
• April 18 – Money and preaching

Hoping to gather some helpful information and learning from these sessions.

Synod Transitional Leaders Met

I had a second Zoom meeting on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 -- I joined the Synod Transitional Leaders zoom, led by Deacon Sherry Krieger, NWOS staff.

Links for You

• Just Three Things
• LIFT Notes

Interim Grace Notes for January 5, 2024

LIFT Epiphany Service on Saturday

Grace will host a service sponsored by LIFT at 4:00 pm celebrating the Epiphany of Our Lord. This will replace the weekend liturgy for The Baptism of Our Lord, which we will observe at the Sunday service. Pastor Paul will be the preacher for this service.

Sympathy to Family of Lee Koenig

We received word on Wednesday that Grace member Lee Koenig died. He and Caryl had recently returned to Fremont from Florida. Lee was the former owner of Crown Battery, having taken over the family business from his father, and developed it into a "a leading North American manufacturer with over 270 employees selling batteries in the United States and 16 foreign countries." The funeral will be next Thursday, 11:00 am at Wonderly Horvath, with visitation from 4:00 - 8:00 pm on Wednesday and an hour before the service on Thursday. You can read the full obituary HERE.

LIFT Lessons and Carols Service, December 30, 31

The LIFT Lessons and Carols service at Emmanuel was attended by about 75 persons from Emmanuel, St. Mark, St. John's and Grace. Total attendance from Grace including me was 10. The attendance at the Saturday service was about 30, with a few from Grace that normally attend Sunday. I arrived at the Grace parking lot at 8:30 am Sunday, and sat in my car to direct any members that had forgotten or were otherwise unaware that there was no service at Grace on Sunday. There were a total of four cars that drove into the parking lot or walked up to the Baker Street door. I reminded them of the change in schedule and of the service at Emmanuel at 10:00. None of those who came to Grace ended up coming to Emmanuel for the service.

Stewardship Team Meeting

The Stewardship Team met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday. We reflected on the recently completed appeal, noting that we grew our intents returned from 81 to 83. We did show an increase of about $2,800 increase from those 83 intents over last year. The average annual intent was $2,872, for a total of $238, 435, as compared to $335,455 from 81 intent returned last year. We also spent some time reflecting on the fact that our ingathering may have suffered from staff transition - our Ingathering Sunday was the same day as Tom's last Sunday.

Organist/Choir Director Search Continues

It took a bit longer than expected, but our ad listing our music leadership openings was posted on the American Guild of Organists website. Maureen has posted an invitation to consider joining our music team on the Grace Facebook page. If you know anyone who might be interested, feel free to share these links or otherwise share the information.

Interim Pastor Zoom

Every first Thursday at noon, an ELCA interim ministry colleague hosts Zoom meeting to discuss any issues that any of us are facing in our respective interim assignments. It's been a couple of months since I joined this meeting, so it was good to see some of the regulars again, including Randy, who was my roommate in Colorado Continuing Education in 2019.

Worship Planner Moved to Google Blog Format

With so many options that are now available for a worship service, it takes some organization for Tricia to know what to put in the weekend bulletin. We normally accomplish this task through a "Worship Planner" which is a chart with all the various elements of the service in rows of a table, and four or five columns for a month of Sundays. I have recently converted the format for completing and sharing the planner to a Google Blog post, the same service that I used to post these Grace Notes. So now, all that is needed to share the planner is a web address, which is graceworshipplanners.blogspot.com/. You can view the January planner HERE, and the February planner HERE.

Retirement Announced to Bishop Daniel in Recent Email

My plans to retire in 2024 have been known generally by Bishop Daniel and the synod staff, but it was necessary for me to inform them formally in an email with the specific dates, which I did today. That will provide them the time they need to make the necessary arrangements for the person or persons who would succeed me at Grace if a pastor has not yet been called.

Links for You

• Just Three Things
• Happy New Year from Hopewood Outdoors
• LIFT Notes